There seems to be no stopping progress in data transferring technologies. Theoptical fiber cables haven’t yet replaced all the old-fashioned copper cables where it is possible – in the phone lines,television cables and Internet providers' networks, and now high-speed fibers have been unexpectedly upgraded. The latest novelty has been first seen in South Carolina at Clemson University where scientist managed to expand optical fiber's bandwidth and other stats, which were already big enough.So what could scientists apply to an already thought out technology? What they did, is a simple and small switch between materials that are used in optical fibers. Inside of the standard mass produced fibers is a special type of glass. Glass is exactly that element which makes optical fiber transparent. This glass was changed for a better use of silicon. Silicon made practically all parameters grow in a better way. Among them are data transfer speed, energy consumption, bandwidth, etc. Unfortunately we don't have any numeric results because theconcept is not yet finished. Researchers face a problem with production technology. To substitute glass with silicon they used an old one, which is standardized for the glass. When they will come up with a technology specialized for silicon, the results will grow further.
How ever that may, there is some more to tell about silicon optical fiber. The fact that bandwidth is expanded greatly gave researchers a clue to use it in some other hi-tech fields. It may now be used in lots of electronic gadgets as silicon allows a much better data transfer speed in different wavelengths. Primarily it will be useful in PCs of course. Silicon optical fiber is able to decrease electricity consumption and processing time. All that is expected, but not in the nearest future unfortunately. Developers of the technology hope to start sales in a year or more.
